The Opium War broke out in June 1840, which was a war of aggression launched by the Britain, the world's largest power at that time, against China. This battle not only tore off the dignity of the Manchu Dynasty, but also the beginning of China's modern humiliating history. Let's recall this war that happened one hundred and eighty-three years ago, it is not easy to create, and everyone is welcome to pay attention to the comments.
1. Background of the war
In the 18th century, the Manchu Qing Dynasty had just experienced the prosperous Kangqian era, and after pacifying the separatist forces in Xinjiang, the territory of the Qing Empire expanded unprecedentedly, second only to the Mongol and Yuan dynasties, reaching more than 13 million square kilometers. However, the prosperity must decline, from the late Qianlong period of the Manchu Qing Dynasty began to corrupt the officials, corruption was rampant, to the Jiaqing and Daoguang dynasties even worse, causing the country to turmoil, the people's resentment boiling. While the Qing Dynasty was declining, Britain had already begun to rise on the continent. In the 60s of the 18th century, Britain began the industrial revolution, and in the 30s of the 19th century, the large machine industry gradually replaced the factory handicraft industry, the industrial output rose sharply, and the level of science and technology changed with each passing day. With the rapid development of industry and economy, the power of Britain has also been continuously enhanced, and it has become the number one capitalist power in the world at that time, known as the "empire on which the sun never sets". In order to expand the export market for goods and compete for the origin of raw materials, Britain stepped up its activities to conquer its colonies, and China became one of the targets of Britain's global expansion strategy. At this time, the Qing Dynasty's national power was already declining, and the feudal system had seriously hindered the development of the modern economy. By the eve of the Opium War, the self-sufficient natural economy, which combined small agriculture and cottage industry, still dominated China's social economy. The so-called million-strong army was still an old-style army dominated by cold weapons, and some of the firearms equipped with were still at the level of science and technology of the Ming Dynasty, which had long lagged behind the world powers for more than a hundred years. In addition, land annexation has become increasingly serious, and it has become a common phenomenon throughout the country. Class contradictions in the country are intensifying day by day, and the masses of the people are resisting and fighting one after another. The Manchu rulers still dreamed of going to the kingdom, turning a blind eye to the internal and external troubles in front of them, not knowing that a catastrophe was approaching.
II. Causes of War
At first, Britain wanted to open the door to China through the first way, so it tried its best to sell industrial products to China. However, China is a self-sufficient small-scale peasant economy, and is not interested in British goods at all, but Chinese porcelain, tea and other goods are exported to Europe and the United States in large quantities. Therefore, until the twenties and thirties of the 19th century, China still maintained a surplus of several million taels per year with Britain. In order to change this unfavorable situation, the British resorted to despicable means of smuggling opium into China in large quantities to satisfy their insatiable desire for profit. Opium brought astonishing windfall profits to the entire British interest group and soon shattered China's long-standing superiority in foreign countries. The massive import of opium not only caused China's annual outflow of 6 million taels, resulting in the depletion of finances and the emptiness of the national treasury, but also seriously destroyed the physical and mental health of the people, destroyed the social productive forces, and caused a depression in industry and commerce and a decline in the combat effectiveness of the army. The serious harm caused by opium ** attracted the attention of the Qing Dynasty, and eight bans were issued from 1821 to 1834, but the effect was not obvious. In December 1838, Emperor Daoguang appointed Lin Zexu as a minister to Guangdong to ban smoking. In June 1839, Lin Zexu destroyed most of the British opium stocks in Humen, which caused strong dissatisfaction in the British. In July, British sailors drunkenly killed villager Lin Weixi in Tsim Sha Tsui Village, Kowloon, further intensifying the conflict between the two sides. On August 15, Lin Zexu ordered a ban on everything, sent troops into Macao, and expelled the British. On January 5, 1840, Lin Zexu was ordered to close the port, declaring that he would forever sever ties with the British**. By April, after several rounds of heated debate, the British Parliament, under the influence of Queen Victoria, finally passed by a vote of 271 to 262, preparing to carry out a military retaliation against the Manchus. In June, the British commander Yilu led more than 40 ships and 4,000 soldiers from India to the Chinese sea, marking the official beginning of the First Opium War.
3. The course of the war
At the beginning of the war, the Qing court considered Britain to be a small barbarian state and did not attach much importance to the combat strength of the British army. In June 1840, Yilu led the expeditionary force to the sea of Guangzhou, and according to the instructions of British Foreign Minister Palmerston, blockaded the Haikou in Guangzhou, Xiamen and other places, and cut off China's overseas **. In July, the British army easily captured Dinghai, Zhejiang. At this time, China's coastal areas, except for Guangdong, which was slightly prepared, were all on loose guards. In August, the British ships attacked the city at an astonishing speed, and the troops reached the mouth of Dagu in Tianjin, and Emperor Daoguang saw that the British army was strong, and urgently ordered Wenyuange University Shi Qishan to tell the British that they would allow trade and punish Lin Zexu, and the British agreed to go south to Guangdong for negotiations. In October, Qishan acted as the governor of Liangguang, and Lin Zexu and Deng Tingzhen were dismissed. In December, Qi Shan negotiated with Yilu through Bao Peng, a private translator, to stall for time. After the British army moved south, the Qing court ordered the governors of the coastal provinces to prepare for the defense of Haikou, and ordered the governor of Liangjiang, Yi Libu, to lead his troops to eastern Zhejiang to prepare for the recovery of Dinghai. On January 7, 1841, the British army preemptively captured the Dajiao and Shajiao forts in Humen, killing and wounding more than 700 defenders, and sinking 11 handsome ships and tugboats. Qi Shan was forced to compromise and privately signed the "Treaty of Piercing the Nose" with Yilu, ceding Hong Kong Island to the British. Emperor Daoguang was furious when he heard the news and ordered a declaration of war on the British. On February 23, the British army continued to attack the Humen Fort, although the defenders resisted bravely, but there was a huge gap in the quality of the soldiers and the best equipment, and the Humen Fort soon fell. From February 26, the British army dispatched the navy and army to continuously break through the forts on the first line of the Humen rungs and the Dahushan fort, traced the Pearl River to Guangzhou, and Guan Tianpei, the commander of the Guangdong Naval Division, was martyred in battle. On May 21, the Qing army attacked the British army in small boats and was routed by the British army. On 24 May, the British launched an attack on Canton and shelled the city. More than 18,000 Qing troops quickly collapsed in the face of the British offensive, and the rebellious general Yishan and others erected white flags to sue for peace, accepted the British conditions, and signed the "Guangzhou Peace Treaty".
On May 29, 1841, the British troops entrenched in the Sifang Fort in the northern suburbs of Guangzhou broke into Sanyuanli to harass and loot. The local people rose up and killed several British soldiers. Subsequently, thousands of people in the nearby villages, armed with broadswords and spears, braved the rain to meet the enemy and besieged the British army in Niulangang. The British sent two companies of sailors to support them, and then retreated to the four-sided battery. On August 21, the new commander of the British army, Pu Dingcha, led 37 ships and 2,500 troops from Hong Kong to the north, attacked Xiamen, Fujian, and captured Dinghai, Zhenhai, Ningbo and other places in October. After the defeat of Xiamen and eastern Zhejiang, Emperor Daoguang sent Shang Shuyijing to Zhejiang as a general of Yangwei, and successively mobilized troops to prepare for counterattacks. In March 1842, Yijing mobilized a large army and decided to counterattack by land and water, in an attempt to recover Ningbo, Zhenhai, Dinghai and other places in one fell swoop. On the night of March 10, the Qing army launched counterattacks on Ningbo and Zhenhai respectively, but were easily repulsed by the British troops stationed there. On March 15, the British army stationed in Ningbo took advantage of the situation**, and the Qing army was defeated on all fronts and retreated to the west of the Cao'e River. In May, the British army abandoned Ningbo and concentrated its forces to invade the north. On June 16, the British army launched the Battle of Wusong, and Chen Huacheng, the governor of Jiangnan, led his army to hold the West Fort, fought alone, and died in his country. The fall of the Wusongkou Fort allowed the British army to go straight to the Yangtze River. On July 21, the British army mobilized 1More than 20,000 men and 76 warships launched an attack on Zhenjiang. The defenders of the Green Camp outside Zhenjiang were unable to resist the British guns and were quickly routed. The British army crossed the city and entered, and the 1,500 Mongolian Eight Bannermen in the city bravely resisted, engaged in street battles with the British army, and finally annihilated the whole army. On August 4, the British ships advanced to the Xiaguan River in Nanjing, and then the British troops landed at Yanziji in Nanjing and threatened to attack the city of Nanjing. Under the deterrence of the British army's strong ships and artillery, the Qing Dynasty's ministers Qi Ying, Yi Libu and Liangjiang Governor Niu Jian were forced to negotiate peace with the British army, and the large-scale fighting in the Opium War basically ended.
Fourth, the post-war impact
In August 1842, under the threat of British guns, the Qing ** was forced to negotiate peace with the British at the Jinghai Temple in Nanjing, and the two sides negotiated about four times in the temple. On August 29, on board the British flagship HMS Cornwall, the Manchu Qing Dynasty accepted the harsh terms of peace proposed by the British, and the first unequal treaty in modern Chinese history, the Sino-British Treaty of Nanjing, was signed between the British and the Chinese. The treaty stipulated that the Manchus ceded Hong Kong Island to Britain and compensated Britain with 21 million taels, and at the same time opened Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Ningbo, and Shanghai as treaty ports. In 1843, Britain forced the Qing Dynasty to conclude the "Five-Port Trade Charter" and the "Five-Port Trade Aftermath Clause" as additional conditions for the "Treaty of Nanjing", adding provisions such as consular jurisdiction and one-sided most-favored-nation treatment. Later, the Western powers saw that the seemingly huge Manchu Qing was so vulnerable, and they forced the Qing to sign more unequal treaties. On July 3, 1844, the United States forced the Manchus to sign the Treaty of Wangxia, and on October 24, France forced the Manchus to sign the Treaty of Whampoa, enjoying consular jurisdiction and missionary rights. From 1845 onwards, Belgium, Sweden and other countries also rushed to coerce the Qing Dynasty to sign various treaties. The Manchu Qing, who was frightened by the British, did not know the strength of the Western countries, anyway, all the treaties were accepted as ordered, and the dignity of the upper country was ruthlessly trampled on by the foreign powers.
The Opium War was a war of aggression imposed on China by the British. Although the Chinese people made a heroic resistance, due to the corruption and incompetence of the Qing Dynasty, coupled with the comprehensive backwardness of science and technology and equipment, the war was defeated and forced to sign an unequal treaty that humiliated the country. The war had far-reaching consequences and brought about fundamental changes in Chinese society. Before the war, China was an independent sovereign state, dominated by a self-sufficient small-scale peasant economy. After the war, China's tariff, judicial and territorial sovereignty began to be undermined, and gradually lost its political independence, and the traditional economy began to disintegrate under the impact of Western industrial products, and finally became a vassal of the Western economy, while China slowly embarked on a semi-colonial and semi-feudal road. If you want to know more about the Opium War, I recommend you ** The Collapse of the Opium War Re-study.